Tim Grobaty: Savoring the sounds, tastes of summer

YOU'RE MOTOSOMETHING: We remember when we got our first Internet machine back in the Stone Age of computers, a year or two before the Web. We recall it being a pig-iron-and-brass steam-punk device whose sole usefulness was to find out the lyrics to Night Ranger's "Sister Christian."

You just had to pour some water and salt into it and give the pull-cord a good yank, and after a lot of racket you were in some egghead's FTP thing and you could browse around till you found what you were looking for:

"You're motorin',

What's your price for flight?"

Really? Those are the lyrics? Because it sounds more like "you're Motorhead." Or "Motor Inn." Or "the mode you're in."

It was 1982 when the song came out, and it was sung roughly phonetically. Like REM songs.

On Thursday, armed with the righteous lyrics to Night Ranger's Greatest Hit, you can sing along with the band, when it takes the unlikely stage on top of Parking Lot A at Long Beach Airport from 1-2 p.m.

The free rooftop performance, hosted by JetBlue (which has been throwing concerts for ticketed passengers at JFK Airport in New York) and Long Beach Airport, will feature the legendary '80s rock band just before it heads off to the Hollywood premiere of "Rock of Ages," the Broadway show-turned- feature film starring Tom Cruise.

The show drags '80s tunes into a sort of "Glee"-ful setting, and "Sister Christian" is one of the tunes on the soundtrack.

LATE FOR SUPPER: We've been so busy packing for our vacation next week (surfboard, golf clubs, scuba gear, windsurfing sail, rock-climbing gear, 12-gauge shotgun, metal-detector, spelunking lamps, clothes) that we forgot to tell you about Wednesday night's Taste of Downtown.

So, we're having the Downtown Long Beach Associates and about 15 participating waterfront restaurants throw it again this evening from 6 to 9.

You know the drill by now: Buy a booklet of tickets and waltz around from restaurant to restaurant sampling their specialties.

They're all located on Ocean Boulevard or south of Ocean around Rainbow Harbor, so it's not a big hike from place to place.

SUN OF SAM: Summer And Music (SAM, if you're in a rush) is coming back, just as we had hoped, with another season of great music downtown.

The blast begins on June 30 with the annual Battle of the Tribute Bands, once again put together by tribute czarina Ashley Hectus.

This year's musical jousters are the Iron Maidens, an all-female Iron Maiden tribute band; Debaser, doing the music of the Pixies; the Petty Breakers, as Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers; Joshua Tree, in a U2 tribute; and Hard Day's Night, doing the Beatles.

The judges are almost as stellar, with the discerning talents of La Strada's Lisa Ramelow, the heart of the Shore Justin Rudd, and would we even mention them if we weren't also on the panel, on which we'll be performing a tribute to SCOTUS robe-wearer Clarence Thomas?